​The role of Sales Operations is (thankfully) elevating. From driving operational optimization, sales operations is increasingly taking the “thought partner to sales” role. It’s moving from support to symbiosis. A few years back, the principal role of sales opns was to ensure tool function, perform administrative tasks and publish reports. A good sales operations function today does so much more. They work with sales to build short and long term sales strategy, articulate sales process, coach reps, hold sales management accountable, provide optimized sales support and drive technology adoption for ease of business.

The function itself is embedded in Sales (mostly) but sometimes in a central Operations or Finance function. The motivations and ambitions of the parent group also influence the role of Sales Operations. There is no right or wrong way to place the function in a company. It depends on the company strategy, company culture and other factors. But, there is a right way for the VP of Sales Operations to orchestrate the team’s relationship with sales. The right or wrong hire, at the leadership helm, means sales operations plays anything from watchdog to administrative assistant to strategic partner.

Who makes for a good VP of Sales Operations? We are solving for the strategic partner to sales. She needs skills and capabilities that are in demand for a senior leadership role – envision market and technology future, understand business trends, partner with teams internally and externally. She needs to appreciate and build a team skilled in both strategy/analysis and process/operational details. She needs political savvy to advocate for sales with the rest of the organization while having the courage to hold the VP of Sales accountable for his number.

I was reading Jason Lemkin’s old blog post on “10 Great Questions to Ask a VP of Sales in an Interview” and I got to thinking what would be 10 great questions I would ask a VP of Sales Opns if I were hiring one. This list is not exhaustive, of course you must test for industry/company fit and personality/ emotional intelligence etc. Some of these questions don’t have definite answers, but if you don’t garner logical thinking in the answer or worse, hear an answer that seems too good to be true or even worse, no answer move on.

Where do you think this business is going in the next couple of years? What market trends are most critical? - tells you if they have spent time understanding the company, market and what customer pain they are dealing with.

How do you think sales strategy should evolve as the business evolves? Markets/Partners we should expand into? Where should sales spend its money? - tells you if they understand and can build sales strategy. Tells you also if they are capable of proactively building a sales process for your business.

What do they envision as the structure of Sales Operations? How do they expect it to evolve as the company grows? – tells you if they know where to focus based on revenue stage of the company, where sales support is needed.

What kind of team talent is needed as you build and evolve the sales operations team? How have you built your teams in the past? – tells you if they recognize the mix of strategic and tactical folks needed as the sales team scales, and know how to build a good team.

How are you going to set up your team to be the voice of reason to sales? – tells you if they are thinking about how their team will handle myriad requests from sales, without damaging the relationship.

Which functions are you going to build relationships with? How are you going to drive cross-functional support for sales? – tells you if they understand how critical interlock with departments such as Marketing, Customer Success, Product etc. are to sales. Also tells you if they understand the bargaining/negotiation and education needed to drive cross-functional collaboration.

What’s your view on sales tools/technology enabling sales? In which ones would you invest budget and time now, which ones in a year? – tells you how abreast of technology they are to improve sales productivity, and if they understand what’s critical now vs. later.

What are your priorities for the first 90 days? First year? – tells you how they are plotting the course. Are they going to try to go after everything and drown, or can they plot a logical, realistic path forward? Can they tie it back to what they are really good at doing?

I/The VP of Sales am/is on track to miss his numbers this quarter. Or what if the biggest deal in the history of the company is about to be lost. What is your plan? – tells you if they are analytical and can think of multiple factors that impact sales and how to rectify it/them.

How do you drive change in the organization? What if the company pivoted direction in strategy/customer/product and sales has to adapt? What’s your plan? – tells you if they can fail fast and fail forward.

Bonus question: Why do you really want the job? – tells you how authentic they are, if they can articulate how the business strategy/responsibilities tie back to outcomes they can drive, their values/passion etc.​The right VP of Sales Operations makes a critical difference to the charter of the Sales Operations team and its reputation/effectiveness both inside the company and with external stakeholders. Choose wisely!

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